Half-Life 2 Review

God almighty this has been a genuine gaming marathon. Anyone know of any good lotion for hemorrhoids? Let me just pry myself away from the chair for a sec and walk a few paces. There, OK, I'm ready to begin now.

After six years in development, over 40 million bucks spent, countless missed release dates and enough controversy surrounding Steam to make Monica Lewinski look like a Mother Therese successor hopeful, Half-Life 2 is finally out. Almost everyone who bought the game can now play it, and see firsthand if it was worth the wait, the aggravation and enough hype to drown a few small cities in.

That's it, Alex, stay like that, baby.

Down with Saddam! Wait, this isn't Mossul? Damn!

Speaking of hype, this brings me to probably the most interesting and indicative point about the game. You all know that Half-Life 2 has been hyped to death, right? I mean, if you've ever visited this site before you'd know that we're guilty of it just as much as any other gaming site. And yet, even with all the hype and with my expectations being as high as they were, the first few levels in the game managed to surpass my expectations. Playing Half-Life 2 will offer you a glimpse into the future of PC gaming. We're not yet there, but Valve has certainly raised the bar on so many levels. With only their second game, they've managed to make a sequel worthy of the original and make huge technological breakthroughs that for the first time make the players feel like they are starring in an interactive movie: a movie with a plot, actors, and the lead hero - Mr. PhD. himself, Gordon Freeman.

Granted, no game is perfect and this applies to Half-Life 2, but let's begin with the positive things first, shall we?

Once again, Valve's primary idea for the game was not to focus on narration, but rather to make the player an active part of the story. They want you to BE Gordon Freeman, and hence Gordon doesn't utter a single word throughout the game. The story is revealed through actual events that you partake in rather than narration. The story and events in game are so intertwined in fact, that any talk about the story being good or bad makes no sense. Simply put, if you don't like the 'story,' you won't like the game. Saying that the pacing is spot on or off for that matter, or that the plot is a little confusing or revealed too soon makes absolutely no sense. The plot is generated through a series of missions and scripted events that you take part in and the only true assessment that you can make of it is whether you've been enjoying the events on screen and staying glued to the screen - which I have. There is enough suspense in there to keep you playing until you've finished the game and that is all you need to know really.

Once again, Valve has shown that they are the masters of level design. Not once have I felt like I was trapped in a constrictive environment, and for such a massive project with so much going on, that in itself is an amazing achievement. Your progress through the campaign feels very natural, and so do the environments. The numerous physics puzzles that the programmers have scattered across many level only further this illusion of virtual reality. No hallway or alleyway seem illogical or out of place and that is one of the main qualities that both the original and the sequel posses. The addition of the gravity gun and the amazingly implemented Havok physics engine make such a difference that they literally change the face of 3D shooters. But that is not just due to the technology; other games have used it as well. Most of the credit goes to the skilful programming by the Valve team that shows what powerful weapon a physics engine can be in the hands of those who know how to wield it... quite literally.

If one disregarded the fact that someone had to take all the tech elements and put them together to make a fun game, I would be inclined to think that The Source engine steals the show in Half-Life 2. The facial animations are out of this world and make the characters come to life. The environments use lighting, shadows and bump-mapping so well that you almost get to the point where you say, 'Damn, that feels like an actual location.' Everything: the great animation, beautiful environments (that span from damp and gloomy cave levels, ruined urban areas to spacious and expansive seaside landscapes), the physics engine - they all fuse to create the type of shooter experience that I'm yet to see rivaled by any other development team.

In addition to the aforementioned features, Valve has also included drivable vehicles like buggies and speed boats, and even team-based combat. Yes, it took six years to make, and they certainly spent a lot of money on it, but even with all this time, has Valve bit off more than they can chew? If there is a real downside to this game, it is Valve's excess of ambition.

Most importantly, I'm talking about the inclusion of team-based combat and the consequent bizarre decision by the programmers to cram like 4-5 people in narrow corridors of a prison, or the hallway of a residential building. Valve, look, sticking five bugs in a corridor with railings along with Freeman, boxes scattered around and God knows what else will create problems. You can't get around that fact. Try it in real life: grow several bugs that are three feet tall, take a guy in a hazard suit and put them all in one room. Then order them all to get out of the room and kill some people on the other end of the corridor. Here's a clue: this is going to create problems. The same problem applies to sticking five people in a small room and having them exposed to a hail of bullets. Have you tried that? Look, it's hard to find your way around when you're being shot at from all angles and are constantly bumping off five other people in a narrow hallway. Don't get me wrong though, the path finding in the game is excellent; probably the best I've seen since Far Cry. It's the bizarre decision by the designers to have you fighting alongside squad mates in such confined areas. That just makes no sense. It doesn't work in real life, let alone a video game! Considering that AI programming was known as one of Valve's fortes, I'm not surprised that the path finding works so well. However, enemy soldiers are far less deadly and coordinated than I expected them to be. Don't get me wrong, they're not bad, they just don't stand out in any shape or form. Far Cry beats Half-Life 2 in those regards.